


You've Got a Friend in Me

by Queenrikki



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Gen, Just cute babies being cute and sweet, Minor Max Evans/Liz Ortecho, They eight here so...no real romance, he loves her of course but he's not letting her know, max has loved liz every day of his life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:40:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24222922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queenrikki/pseuds/Queenrikki
Summary: The third grade is really hard when you are an alien.
Relationships: Max Evans & Liz Ortecho
Comments: 7
Kudos: 17





	You've Got a Friend in Me

**Author's Note:**

> I originally started writing this for last year's Echo event and I'm just a *little* overdue. This is a part of me working through my fic backlog. Thanks to LaTessitrice for looking this over. All mistakes are, of course, mine.

“So...how long do you think it will take for Mr. Eddings to figure out where you are?”

Max did not look up at the sound of the voice. He shrugged. “Definitely longer than it took for you to find me.”

He continued to scribble on the paper. There were parts of a story here and there but a strange doodle covered most of the page. The swirls and lines relaxed him, so he drew them whenever he felt stressed. He didn’t know what it meant but he’d always known it and it brought him comfort to put it down on the page. He brushed a bit of dust off his notebook. It mixed with his sweat and formed an orange smear on the page. He resisted the urge to tear off that bit of the paper. 

He felt Liz sit down in the dirt next to him. She didn’t touch him, which he appreciated. He hated unexpected touching, even if he really, really,  _ really _ liked the person doing the touching.

Even though they were under the jungle gym, the sun managed to make her dark hair shine.

“You came to get me?”

Liz shrugged. “I didn’t want you to get in trouble. Mr. Eddings just realized that you were missing a few minutes ago. I asked to go to the bathroom and since I never get in trouble, he just let me. I thought that I would come and find you before he did.”

Max shrugged again. She was right; he knew that but there was too much going on in class right now. “I’ve been gone a minute, so I’m probably already in trouble.” He met her eyes briefly and then looked down quickly, his chin touching his chest. “And, it took longer for you to walk out here than it would have taken you to go to the bathroom and back to class so…you’re probably in trouble too. Now.”

Liz’s mouth opened slightly. He thought her surprise was cute. “I never get in trouble!”

Max smiled. “I know! That’s the one good thing about this!”

“Are you calling me a goody-goody?”

“No.”

“Because Kyle Valenti did and he got a punch in the stomach for it.”

Max stared at her without speaking for a moment before asking “ _ You _ punched Kyle Valenti? I’m sure Alex liked that!”

“He didn’t. He was super mad about it.” The tips of Liz’s ears turned red. “And I didn’t punch him. Rosa did.” 

“When was this?”

“Week before last.”

“Did she get in trouble for it?”

“No. Did you really think Kyle is going to let everyone know that a girl knocked the wind out of him? Even if she is older, it won’t look good for him.”

Max shook his head. “I don’t know why you’re always so hard on Kyle. He’s not the worst. I mean any one of Alex’s brothers…”

Liz held up a hand and shook her head. “He’s a stupid boy.”

“ _ I’m _ a boy.”

“ _ You _ are a  _ smart _ boy and so is Alex. At least when he’s not around Kyle, he is. I swear the more he spends time with Kyle the dumber he gets.”

Max ducked his head so she wouldn’t see his grin. He could still feel his fingers moving around the page but he didn’t need to look at it; his fingers knew the way. But his hand did not matter, nor did the picture. The only thing that mattered in that moment was the girl next to him.

“Why are you laughing?” 

He looked back up, a smile still on his face. “Because it’s funny!” He felt the drawing end and he was able to set the notebook aside. A giant cloud of relief floated up and away. A part of him imagined that he could see it hovering just over his head. He looked over at Liz and smiled.

“It isn’t. I just don’t know why Alex likes to hang around him so much. I’m his best friend. He shouldn’t need to hang around stupid Kyle Valenti.”

“But isn’t Maria your best friend?”

“They are both my best friends.”

“And Alex doesn’t get to have more than one best friend?”

“He already has Maria and me! Isn’t that enough?”

Max nodded. 

Liz rolled her eyes and tossed a strand of hair back over her shoulder. “Could you stop doing that?”

“What?”

“Nodding…Not talking, staring as a response. It’s not really that helpful. When communicating, it is always best to use the most efficient method available. Your eyes can’t actually talk for you.”

Max nodded. 

“You did that on purpose!” Liz stuck her tongue out at him. He returned the gesture and they proceeded to make increasingly silly faces at each other until they both started laughing. It took Max a little long to recover from the giggle fit and by the time he finished she had composed her face into a very serious expression. He had seen that expression on her father’s face when he would pull aside a new waiter at the Crashdown.

“So…why did you leave class? Was it because of what Tess said? Did you see what she got on last week’s spelling test? Tess is the last person to call someone a re—”

“Don’t say it…it doesn’t feel good, even if you’re just repeating what she said.”

“Okay, I won’t.” Liz was quiet for a moment. She held her hand out to him and Max took it. He didn’t feel the same connection that he felt with Isobel. He figured that was because she was his sister. But he did feel better around Liz than pretty much anyone else in the world.

Even Isobel.

“It wasn’t Tess. I try not to think about her.” He ducked his head down until his chin touched his chest. He tried to draw his arms into his body but was surprised to find that he was still holding Liz’s hand. A part of him wanted to take comfort from her touch. But another part of him was annoyed that he needed that comfort. Why couldn’t he be like everyone else? It wasn’t fair.

Max shook his head and avoided looking Liz in the eye. “I just wanted to do my work at my desk like always. Why did we have to get into groups? There are always too many people talking at once and it’s hard to pay attention when everyone is talking over each other.”

“That makes sense,” Max knew that if he looked at Liz that he would see the sympathy in her eyes and that was the last thing that he wanted at that moment. Even hearing it in her words was more than he could take right now.

Liz’s head was tilted to the side and her expression was so warm and kind. He let out a breath. “You didn’t have problems with the project.”

Liz shrugged. “That’s because I made sure to do all the important work. That way I didn’t have to listen to anyone, and I’ll still get an ‘A’.”

He didn’t think he could just take control like that. No one ever listened to him. Except for Isobel. And then she usually just told him what to do.

“It was easier last year.”

Liz cocked her head and looked him in the eyes. “You didn’t even know how to talk when you started school last year. How could that have been better?”

He looked away from Liz. “You’re sort of right. Last year, I didn’t know what people were saying or even what I was really supposed to be doing here.” He bit the inside of his bottom lip. He glanced back at Liz and she was doing the same thing. He wondered if she had noticed that. Max doubted it. "I got mad a lot last year. It wasn’t just not being able to talk. Even after learning English, it still took a minute for us…for me to learn what people meant. And when I didn’t…they would say things. Mean things—like what Tess said.”

“I thought that you didn’t think about her?” A tiny smile played across her lips. 

Max ducked his head so that his hair covered his eyes. “Okay. I do. It’s hard to let go of the bad stuff people say. They would talk to me like I was stupid. Like I couldn’t understand. And maybe I didn’t really understand the words, but I knew what they meant. ‘You’re weird, you’re different’…”

“They meant that you weren’t like them. That you didn’t belong here. That you should go back to where you came from.”

Max made the effort to look into her eyes. And he realized that it didn’t make him anxious when Liz looked at him. She smiled. “I hear people say that kind of thing to my mom and dad all the time. Rosa tries to distract me but I just pretend that I don’t hear. People around here don’t like it when you’re different and they make sure you know it.”

He wanted to say that he didn’t understand but he had seen how kids would form groups. White kids and Mexican kids and Native kids all tended to run in their own little circles. And then there were the kids like Isobel’s friend Tish Okabe or Maria DeLuca where there weren’t enough kids like them to actually have their own group. 

“I didn’t want to hear that every day. I wanted to run away but Isobel wouldn’t come with me. So, I would hide. But my mom and Isobel would come and find me and I’d have to come to school anyway.” He picked at a patch of dirt on his pants. Liz squeezed his hand and he, almost without thinking, squeezed it back.

"I liked it better before school. I barely knew my mom and dad but I always had Isobel. And as long as Isobel was there, I was good. And then…I got what people were saying and how to talk back. I made good grades…”

Liz giggled. “Mine were better.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Yours are better than the whole schools.”

“As it should be.” Liz stopped smiling. “Really, I don’t know what I would do without Rosa but she’s my big sister, I only see her sometimes during the day, I don’t know what I would do if we had been together this whole time and then they took her away.”

He was glad that she understood. Some of the other kids thought it was weird that he and Isobel were so close. His mom and teacher had said that separating them was for their own good. They tried to say that he would appreciate why when he was older but he was certain that they were making that part up. How could separating him from the only person who had never left him be a good thing? Isobel had taken it better, or she pretended to. Isobel never let any adults see what was going on in her head. She always said that if they showed their true selves, then they would be “sent away” like… the other boy. Max was not sure he agreed but what he did know was that he did not trust that people would be helpful, be kind. He remembers being a trio, when everything was scary and new, they had had each other. And that was ripped away. They felt him sometimes. Flashes of fear and pain. But mostly it was nothing. For months it had been nothing. So, Max tried to be good…most of the time. 

Just in case Isobel was right.

He did not mention the other boy to Liz. No one here knew anything about him and he had an unspoken agreement with Isobel to never talk about it. He did talk about pretty much everything else and it was amazing how much better it felt just being around Liz. He let go of her hand. Max missed the contact but he…did not need it now. Not like before.

Most of the time, he felt like everyone was playing by rules that he did not understand. Isobel was so much better at being what other people wanted her to be. He thought that he would have Isobel’s company as he struggled through but it seemed like someone had explained the rules to her and left him in the dark. Sometimes, she would try to use their bond to get him to understand but even in the shared space of their mind, it had seemed outside of Max’s comprehension.

Max scrunched his nose. “What are you thinking?”

“If I have to get in trouble, then I guess it’s better to have a friend around to get in trouble with.”

Max smiled. “It is better when you have someone else around.”

Liz stood up and held out her hand to him. “Sorry I don’t have anything to listen to. I have to leave my cd player in my bookbag during class.”

He took her hand, taking comfort in its warmth. “Being here is good enough. It’s nice to be left alone but not actually be alone.” He leaned back, his head touching the metal supports of the jungle gym. “I couldn’t take it anymore. Class, I mean. This project was a bad idea.”

“Yeah. It sounded fun at first but everyone was walking around and yelling and not actually doing any work.”

Max nodded. “Yeah! I couldn’t think. It was too loud and everyone kept moving around and bumping into me. I couldn’t concentrate on anything!”

Liz smiled. “I could tell you weren’t thinking straight. You didn’t even bring a book out here to read. You always have a book with you.”

Max ducked his head. He looked up at her while still keeping his head down. “Well, that’s because books make sense! Stories make sense! Real people don’t. That’s why I like stories better.”

“What would Isobel say if she heard that!”

Max gaped her and shook his head. “Nothing because she’s not going to hear it! Besides, I didn’t mean her. Or you.” Liz smiled, the tips of her ears going red. Max looked down again. His gaze focusing on their still entwined hands. “I’m glad that you came to get me. But I’m sorry that you’re going to get in trouble now.”

“Don’t worry about me.” Liz followed his gaze and slowly released his hand. “It won’t be that bad. I’m the best student in the class. What’s the point of being a good kid if you can’t spend a little credit on one little bad thing? You’re my friend. If I were lost, you’d come and find me. Why wouldn’t I do the same for you?”

Liz had always been nice to him, sharing music, making sure that the other kids included him in games but somehow it had never occurred to him that she considered him a friend. He didn’t have many friends. At least ones that weren’t his sister. He knew Isobel would help him, but other people? Everything in their lives had always told them that people were not to be trusted. But Liz was different. 

That was why he loved her.

He avoided looking at her as he got to his feet and brushed the dirt from his jeans. He knew that he loved Liz, had since the first day that they had met, but it didn’t feel right to have the thought while she was next to him. Not that he was ashamed of it but he wasn’t sure that Liz would be comfortable with it and Max didn’t think it was right to make your feelings someone else’s problem. 

“Come on, let’s go back in. We don’t want to miss lunch.”

Liz smiled as she stood up. “Okay. I am getting a little hungry.” She cocked her head to the side and her eyes flashed brightly as she yelled, “Race you back!” and took off running. Max grinned and trotted along behind her.


End file.
